It is recognized in wine making procedures that the introduction of sulfur dioxide into must at an early stage will reduce oxidation and inhibit the growth of natural wild yeast residing in the must. Oxidation of must will result in discoloration of the must juice while the presence of wild yeast may contribute in an undesirable fashion to the organoleptic properties of the wine.
Heretofore, rather rough empirical and sometime arbitrary procedures were deployed in introducing sulfur dioxide. Even manual applications of sulfur dioxide have been employed, and only upon trial and error could the wine maker determine whether or not enough or too much sulfur dioxide was used.
Thus, there has been an ever increasing need for an automatic reproductible system and technique for introducing relatively quickly, accurately and uniformly measured amounts of sulfur dioxide into must.